Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s hair loss was painful. But God was enlarging her territory.
By Sharon Westbrook // Black Women // EEW Magazine Online
Rep. Ayanna Pressley, whose signature Senegalese hair twists gave Black girls and women confidence to show up as their authentic selves, went viral in January 2020 after revealing that she had gone bald due to the autoimmune condition alopecia.
That moment which was marked by honesty, courage, and vulnerability, endeared her to millions—especially those who have suffered traumatic hair loss.
In a new Elle feature, Pressley, 47, said, “I had come to appreciate the power of representation as a Black woman with Senegalese twists, but I had not fully understood that I was also offering representation for those who have suffered traumatic hair loss.”
Credit: BIJOU KARMAN/ELLE
When a friend told Pressley, a woman of faith and the first black woman to represent Massachusetts in Congress, “Your territory has been enlarged,” Pressley told Elle, “At first, I didn’t understand what that meant. But there are seven million people living with alopecia. There are people who suffer traumatic hair loss because of other autoimmune diseases or because of cancer treatment or because it’s hereditary. One woman came up to me and said, “I suffer from female pattern baldness. Thank you for how you show up in the world every day. It means a lot to a lot of people.’”
The enlargement of territory is a concept rooted in the biblical story of Jabez found in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10.
“He confidently prayed for the Lord to bless him, enlarge his territory and keep him free from harm and pain,” wrote top Christian blogger Dianna Hobbs in a post explaining the story of the man whose name meant distress, pain, or affliction. “Amazingly, the Bible tells us God honored Jabez’s prayer and defied the meaning of his name.”
It appears that God has also honored Pressley who, before joining Congress, became the Boston City Councilor At-large and first woman of color to serve in that capacity in the 100-year history of the Boston City Council.
For quite some time, Pressley has been breaking through barriers and touching the hearts of many that need her story, her inspiration, and her example. Even through pain, she is inspiring others and God keeps enlarging her. But that doesn’t mean Pressley, who went bald the night before the first impeachment of former President Donald Trump, was seeking the limelight. Quite the opposite is true.
“At six in the morning, the day of the impeachment, I was getting a custom wig made because we were fearful that if I just showed up on the House floor on impeachment day with a bald head, the assumption would be that I was seeking to make a statement. Really, all I wanted to do was hide and heal,” she explained.
“Losing my hair was such a traumatic thing because it was a transformation not of my choosing. And it was something I was going to have to do on a world stage,” she added.
Though she does not always feel comfortable or confident these days—as no one does—Pressley knows that being Black, bold, and bald is a statement that “challenges conventional norms and standards for what is beautiful, for what is professional, for what is appropriate.”
As she continues her advocacy and remains open to where this journey takes her, daily, Pressley is growing more adept at filling the big shoes the good Lord has given her to wear.
“I’m 47 years old. I know who I am, and I stand in that firmly,” she said.
